
README for In the Metaverse, Politicians Can Hear You Scream:Corporate Scandals, Big Tech Regulation, and the Microfoundations of Focusing Events


Authors: Pepper Culpepper, Taeku Lee, Ryan Shandler
Contact: pepper.culpepper@bsg.ox.ac.uk
Journal: Perspectives on Politics
Date: 5 January 2026


All analyses were carried out using RStudio Version 2025.09.2+418 on macOS Sonoma 14.8.1. R Version is 4.5.2. 
The following R packages (and their versions) are used: ggplot2 (4.0.0), psych (2.5.6), ltm (1.2-0), Rmisc (1.5.1), dplyr (1.1.4), readr (2.1.5), janitor (2.2.1), stargazer (5.2.3), tidyr (1.3.1), MatchIt (4.7.2), purrr (1.0.4), broom (1.0.8), lmtest (0.9-40), pdftools (3.6.0), tm (0.7-16), scales (1.4.0).

R files in each section below should be run in the order they are listed. 
 - Lines 1 through 32 load and clean the data.
 - Lines 35 through 733 replicate the analyses, figures, and tables for the study in the order in which they appear. 
 - Lines 738 through 1760 run the analyses, figures and tables for all online appendix


Source dataset and files: 
 - Experimental dataset --> Metaverse_Dataset.RData
 - Analysis code --> Replication Code.R
 - Log of replication code --> replication_log

